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INTERNET WIRELESS WIFI/WIMAX IN AFRICA…? When Copernicus, following Kepler’s invention of the microscope, made his discovery about the true nature of the earth in the early middle ages it was such a revolutionary idea that was to usher in a spiral of scientific revolutions that would take humanity to great heights and assure man’s dominion over earth as well as conquest of space (and time). It would draw out man’s creative genius and situate him as “Master” in the halls of time to lift humanity from the dungeon and smelly waters of backwardness and mediocrity, disease and ignorance to the bright light and airy dawn of creativity and ingenuity. Science and human history has known the likes of Thomas Eddison, Isaac Newton, Michael Faraday, Albert Einstein, Louis Pasteur, Charles Darwin, etc. Science has not paused in its majestic glide over nature and its intent on conquest. Even in our own day it continues to leave its genius and power in individuals endowed by her to unlock nature’s secrets. What is exciting is that science raises genius from anywhere to pontificate and preside over the spoils it leaves in its wake. They are found in every part of the globe, not only in Europe and America but in Africa and Asia as well. Recently we saw science and its genius emerge and root itself on African soil right at the heartland of Black Africa. We are talking about nothing more than the recent scientific feat and breakthrough in the Wireless Internet Broadband world in Freetown Sierra Leone by George C. Anionye. George C. Anionye, a scientist and an inventor with fantastic and incredible genius in the IT wizardry seems to have finally brought a solution to African wireless broadband Internet Service. With the (FGC Wireless) project in Freetown, he has apparently achieved this! Efficient, Cost effective and user friendly, his approach has been a combination of Indigenous and Western technology such that multiple hotspots are running on the same network in a mesh-like structure. Thus resulting in a city-wide wireless broadband network likened to that in Philadelphia in the USA.
His innovative approach has not only brought in ease to the industry but has also helped in developing municipal wireless broadband internet for Africa. Before now, a wireless mesh was never attempted in Africa because of the impossible factors like Functional street lights, electricity, as well as security issues which make it impossible to install multiple access points, like the 500 installed in Philadelphia, in a typical African city. George’s approach as he said came from the fact that a city wide broadband is the cheapest known way for users to get connected to the internet. This is because with a wireless enabled laptop, all the user need do is simply buy a one hour ticket to access the internet, which makes it possible to actually get internet as and when you need it in a pocket friendly manner. Having experienced this in different cities around the world, he wanted to reproduce what he saw in an Africa city. The impossible deployment scenarios in Africa, which makes it impossible for the exact type of Philadelphia deployment to be achieved became a reason for him to task his brain. This project is the first attempt to achieve a near city-wide wireless broadband. It will thus be the first city-wide broadband internet wireless wifi access in Africa as they finish up the coverage of the few remaining parts of the city.
George Chuka Anionye, an IT Engineer, has been able to use his genius and creativity in the planning and development of a network with a different concept but achieving the same thing like that in Philadelphia. This concept includes advantages like minimal power consumption which is often the main hindrance to the execution of projects of this nature in Africa due to epileptic power (Electric Energy) supply. His method eludes the dependency on electric generators, which is predominant in African deployments with its expensive fuel/gasoline consumption, for running base stations. George has adapted the wireless equipments to adjust to his requirements necessary to meet the harsh conditions in deployment of this technology in Africa.
His solution does not just offer wireless broadband internet but comes with VoIP (Voice Over Internet Protocols) This obviously brings down the expensive cost of International Telephone calls. Apart from Internet and VoIP, his solution also includes Fax as well which makes it a complete business and research solution. At the moment any visitor who travels to Freetown with a wireless enabled laptop will be able to get onto the internet with ease. The paying is with ease also as there would not be the usual stress of signing up contracts for internet service. The network also allows the use of International calling cards at Unbelievably low rates.
Talking with Engineer George Anionye, he is grateful to Dr Emmanuel Obi, a practicing Medical Doctor by profession and a business man in Tennessee USA who believed in the project and supported him with the necessary finance to get the game started and eventually achieving this feat. George is still amazed as to how a medical doctor believed in Information Technology and the technological jargons he was explaining. For George, Dr Obi was the God-sent financial assistance he needed to enable him actualize his technological potentials and idea for the world to see because a bank or financial institution will not give a loan unless they are sure it has been actualized. According to him, we were a laughing stock all this while but gradually as people (now customers) got to use the network they began realizing that this is a breakthrough which was in its infancy. He further stated that he has had this idea for years even before the FGC Wireless project but needed the zeal and will of someone like that from Dr Obi to get the ball rolling.
He believes that for African networks to function as efficiently as the networks in America, UK and other developed countries of the world there are factors that Project Managers of such networks need to consider, because deployments in Africa is a lot more rigorous/demanding and honestly a totally different ball game considering the fact that the society’s structures are not as organized or standardized as in the developed world. George started with doing what he referred to as 'topographic deployment' in order to achieve this feat. He said it is unfortunate that he cannot be a manufacturer as well as the project manager at the same time. Moreover Africa has not developed to the point where most of such items used for our deployments can be locally manufactured. And because of this he had to go through the sometimes hard-to-convince foreign/western manufacturers to customize or change certain equipments in order to synchronize with the idea and Concept he has. He further went on to state that with the ongoing cooperation of manufacturers he can do even a lot better for Africa
"The journey to achieving this scientific feat started like a joke," said George Anionye. “When I told Dr Obi about this concept, I was not expecting him to follow up but I was amazed as events unfolded. I am grateful to God for having guided us (my team of IT specialists, Osagie, Ajao and I) through the period of tension, confusion and frustration associated with designing and developing a project of such magnitude. Every effort towards achieving this feat was by no means easy but by God’s mercy and help we arrived. There were a combination of neck-breaking obstacles that could have derailed the project mostly bothering on human factors, but somehow we came through it all”. He thanks God that these factors did not sink FGC WIRELESS as they actually threatened the foundation of the business. We are happy to be around to see the dawn of a new day in Africa. With this scientific feat, “for those who dwell in a land of deep shadow a light has come” as prophesied of old in Biblical times.
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